Natalia Nakazawa

natalianakazawa.com | @nakazawastudio

Vessels of energetic potential: Natalia Nakazawa uses the icon of the vessel to speak to our current moment.

Natalia Nakazawa Artist Statement:

Right around the time that I found out I was pregnant with my son, over 5 years ago, I felt a gentle compulsion to create these watercolor apparitions of biomorphic, cellular, dancing creatures steeped in dark, watery no-places. It didn't really make any sense to me until I realized that I was in the middle of cellular creativity. Something similar is happening to me now. As the lockdown started to sink into my psyche, I felt a sharp focus around painting freehand vessels, which feel like energetic bodies. They vibrate with urgency and intuition. Reflect a moodiness and provide me a space to capture in a flash of expression what I'm experiencing at a given moment. They feel timely to me as we continue to experience the unfolding of unknown tragedies and the crumbling of the systems we have come to rely on (even if those systems are only in our imaginations). Without an over-reliance on hope, I see this as energetic potential - a moment when chaos turns our energies into a tailspin. We can capture these free radicals - but what we do with them is dependent on reflection and a willingness to throw the dice and risk something for a better world. We really have nothing to lose, at this point.

Checklist:

Fire Vessel, fluid acrylic ink, pastel on handmade watercolor paper, 13" x 10", 2020, $375